Genesis Winners in the 2007 Intertrade Ireland SeedCorn Competition

The Genesis Enterprise Programme (www.gep.ie) is celebrating a unique double win where two of its participating companies took the top prizes at the grand final of the 2007 All Island Seedcorn competition organised by InterTradeIreland's EquityNetwork. The Seedcorn competition aims to provide businesses with the experience of writing a business plan and presenting it to the venture capital community.

Cork based, Aspiracon took the Munster prize of €20,000 as Best Emerging International Company while Tralee based education software publisher, Flúirse won the €10,000 award for "Best venture stemming from university spinouts and platform programmes 2007". The judging panel were looking for the same elements that a potential investor would look for, with the achievement of substantial international sales being a major criterion.

Both companies have been supported in their development by the Genesis Enterprise Programme (www.gep.ie) which is based in Cork Institute of Technology’s Rubicon Innovation Centre. Genesis is a one-year rapid incubation programme designed to facilitate budding entrepreneurs in the development of their businesses.


2nd Year Top Prizes for Genesis

This is the 2nd year that companies participating in the Genesis programme have taken top prizes in the competition.

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Aspiracon
AspiraCon (www.aspiracon.com) was founded in May 2007 by Pat Lucey and Colum Horgan, formerly Senior Managers with Motorola. The company has grown significantly, developing integrated software tools and services which help organizations to meet their commitments by delivering complex projects on time.
Delighted with their success, Pat Lucey, Managing Director of AspiraCon, said:

"We're very pleased with this recognition of AspiraCon's efforts. The team has emerged from the ashes of the Motorola closure in Cork earlier this year and its strength in World-Class Project Management has been validated by its customer successes."

The company has participated in Genesis, a rapid incubation programme, over the last year. According to Denise Kennedy, Manager Genesis Enterprise Programme: "AspiraCon lives its business. Their success in developing the AspiraCon business through key milestones over the last year has been truly impressive and exemplifies their capability as Project Management specialists."


Flúirse
Founded by the team of Kristian O’Donovan and Tomás Finneran in 2005, Flúirse (www.fluirse.com ) design and develop interactive media and software that is specifically aligned to subject curricula. Based in the Tom Crean Centre, Tralee, the company has gone from strength to strength growing a significant and loyal customer following of Teachers, Parents and Students over the last 2 years.

Kristian and Tomás expressed their delight at the win, which they said would provide a significant cash injection for the new business and the extra profile to coincide with their first funding round for which Flúirse can now say that they have impressed the best business minds on the island.

According to Denise Kennedy, Manager Genesis Enterprise Programme: "Flúirse is a terrific example of the talent and commercial ability that startups emerging out of Kerry are demonstrating".


About Genesis
Now celebrating its 10th year, over 140 entrepreneurs in Cork & Kerry have been supported by the Genesis Enterprise Programme in getting their businesses off the ground. The diverse sectors in which these businesses have competed include medical devices, food, photonics, mechanical engineering, biotech, machine vision and many others. Genesis is designed to support high value potential, knowledge based businesses that are creating some intellectual property (whether in product or services) and have export and scale potential.

The Programme offers entrepreneurs an opportunity to accelerate the early development of their business by delivering an integrated 12 month programme of supports in the form of training, mentoring, office facilities and networking with like minded early stage entrepreneurs. Funding support is also provided where each participant with a third level qualification receives € 6,600 of a scholarship grant from Cork Institute of Technology. In addition, for those projects which meet the Enterprise Ireland eligibility criteria, there is the potential to receive up to € 38,000, representing 50% of prior year income.

Funded by the Department of Education and Science under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 and Enterprise Ireland, the Genesis Enterprise Programme is a public sector delivered initiative with significant private sector involvement. Genesis is administered by the Cork Institute of Technology in partnership with 9 other regional and national organisations - Enterprise Ireland, the 5 South West Region County Enterprise Boards (Kerry, Cork City, Cork North, South Cork, West Cork), Údarás Na Gaeltachta, Cork BIC, Institute of Technology Tralee, and University College Cork.
For further details, contact Genesis at (021) 492 8900 or see www.gep.ie